


Roles

by VoyagerWisp



Category: Pocket Monsters | Pokemon (Anime)
Genre: Alternate Universe, Team Rocket - Freeform
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2012-08-17
Updated: 2012-09-07
Packaged: 2017-11-26 09:07:19
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 2
Words: 16,801
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/648927
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/VoyagerWisp/pseuds/VoyagerWisp
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Pikachu is finally captured and expected to fill the role of Team Rocket member, the same way a ditto can instantly transform. James also finds himself pushed into an unfitting role as he lets others define what type of intimacy he'd prefer. It's not so easy to change the nature of pokemon or people.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Pikachu

**Author's Note:**

> This is NOT supposed to be a shipping fic. Not at all, really. This takes place in the same alternate universe/retelling as my last one-shot, "Flame". Though this story definitely stands on its own, as it has different main characters and themes, so no need to read it if you haven't already. For the interested, this story takes place before Flame, and the second chapter will take place after.

"PIKACHU!" Ash yelled.

"Pika!" Pikachu whined desperately as it rose up in the balloon.

Jessie, James, and Meowth laughed. "Sorry, twerp," Jessie mocked.

"We've got your Pikachu!" James said.

"Your Pikachu... Is our Pikachu now!" Meowth shouted down.

Ash desperately tried to reach for his other pokeballs, but he was tied up in a way he couldn't quite reach them. "Pikachu!" he shouted desperately again.

"Pikapi!"

"See any sign of those other twerps around?" Jessie asked.

"Nothing!" Meowth said, peering around with the binoculars. "Those two haven't come out of that building yet."

"Alright! We've really finally done it!" James said.

"That's right twerp, your pikachu is now a rocket pikachu!" Jessie declared. The three of them laughed together.

"No! Team Rocket, you can't have Pikachu! I'll get you for this!" Ash yelled.

"Bye bye!" the three rockets said as they waved happily, rising ever higher into the air.

"Pikachu! Thunderbolt!" Ash yelled, even though he already knew it was useless.

Pikachu knew so as well, but still followed its trainer's command. "Chu! CHUUUU!" it shouted as it released the electric attacks again and again.

"You can't get us like that," James said.

"That's right. This trap is electric proof," Meowth said.

"Now, just say good-bye," Jessie said, and leaned the cage to where Pikachu could see Ash clearly.

"PIKACHU!" Ash yelled as loudly as he could after his friend.

"Pikapi," Pikachu said unhappily.

The group listened to Ash continue to call for the pokemon until they were too far away to hear him anymore.

"No one's coming after us!" James pointed out the obvious.

"I think by now we're probably too far away from twerp or any of his friends to find us," Jessie said.

"Alright! It's really our win!" the three shouted together.

Pikachu cringed and looked down in pain. "Pikapi," it said.

"What is it?" James said, looking toward the miserable pikachu. "Don't worry Pikachu, you won't be treated badly or anything."

"That's right, that's right," Jessie said. "You're now part of the glorious world of Team Rocket!"

"You'll get all the recognition you deserve for being such a powerful Pikachu, too," Meowth said.

"Pikachu! Pika pika, pikapi!" Pikachu said harshly.

"That's a nice outlook, but it won't get you far," Meowth said.

"What did it say?" Jessie asked.

"That it doesn't want recognition from many people, that just the recognition of his beloved twerp is enough," Meowth said.

Both Jessie and James smirked at that. "It is kind of nice to think that way..." James began.

"But the twerp would have eventually tossed you aside, too!" Jessie said.

"When he got his fame and status, that is," James said.

"Yeah, do you really think he's looking for anything else? You're just a stepping stone for a trainer like him who can have access to many pokemon, right?" Jessie said.

"That's right, but we recognize you as exceptional," James said.

"And the twerp will have his eyes on more powerful pokemon as they appear! That's just how trainers are!" Jessie said.

"Pikachu! Pikapi, pikachu!" Pikachu said adamantly.

Pikachu was obviously disagreeing with them, but they waved their hands in dismissal without even understanding the message. "Maybe you'll switch trainers in Team Rocket, too, but they'd still appreciate you." James began.

"Yeah, and maybe you'll be the boss' top pokemon and stay by his side forever!" Meowth said.

"But the boss throws away his pokemon for more powerful ones all the time," James said.

"Yeah... I guess I know that firsthand," Meowth said sadly.

"Yeah, gotta be honest with the thing," Jessie said. "Maybe you'll be tossed around, maybe you won't, but you can be assured that Team Rocket is full of trainers who are desperate to have pokemon. No matter who you're with, they'll appreciate having you."

James nodded. "It'll be a good experience, you'll never have to feel unwanted."

"It's true. I can't imagine a more wonderful experience for a pokemon than Team Rocket. Isn't that right, Meowth?" Jessie asked.

"Yeah, that's right!" Meowth said.

"Pikachu," Pikachu said with some concern. It had already been appreciated. It didn't want to get pushed around to different trainers, some who probably abused their pokemon. Team Rocket wasn't a good group, after all. These two had never really mistreated their pokemon, as Pikachu knew from talking to said pokemon, but that didn't mean that all Team Rocket members were like that. If Ash couldn't find them, if Pikachu was really going to be trapped in the Team Rocket system forever, it would be in for a horrible time. And yet, these guys were acting like he was in for a picnic, some sort of never-ending fantasy life. "Pika pika! Pika PIKACHU!" Pikachu shouted.

"What's that?!" Meowth said angrily.

"What did it say this time?" Jessie asked.

"Just that we don't look like we're having a very happy or wonderful experience most of the time," Meowth said.

"How dare you!" Jessie shouted at Pikachu. "That's-"

"Not too far from the truth," James said. "It's better to chase around the twerp than to go back to base right now, isn't it?"

"Hey, you don't have to tell the thing that much!" Jessie said.

"Pikachu?" Pikachu said curiously. The two failed at their goals so much when around him and Ash, why would they have a better time with that?

"Things will be different now, anyway," Meowth said.

"That's right! We're bringing back such a prize!" Jessie said, hugging the cage that Pikachu was in.

"Th-that's right!" James also brought some kind of enthusiasm into his voice, and also hugged the cage from the other side.

The two of them lifted it up together. "We finally got Pikachu!" they said together.

Upon reaching the rocket base, they entered together, and slammed the cage with Pikachu on the counter. "We've returned!" Jessie said.

"We need to see the boss, right away!" James said.

"We've finally captured this rare super-powered pikachu!" Meowth said.

The girl at the counter with green hair, Wendy, just stared. Oh, so it was this group again. They were absolutely ridiculous and obnoxious, and were more or less not really rocket members anymore. The only reason they might still be is because their debts were so big they had to work for free. Such expendable agents may want to keep quiet and stick to the background, but not these two. They called attention to their clownish exploits every time they came around.

Not that it wasn't fun for Wendy to watch. She especially hated Jessie, who was just so arrogant, despite her overwhelming incompetence. There was nothing wrong with knocking this group, especially her, down a few pegs. Wendy looked at them and smiled.

"What is it? Hurry up, let us back to see the boss," Jessie said.

"He's not around at the moment," Wendy said.

"What?" the group said.

"Nope, he's out. What did you all want, anyway? Just to show him this thing?" Wendy said, motioning toward the Pikachu in the cage that they had so carelessly dumped on top of her desk over all her paperwork.

"That's right," James said.

"So when will the boss be back?" Jessie asked.

"Who knows," Wendy said, though she was pretty sure when he might physically check in. "Super-powered pikachu, huh?" she said, looking inside the cage. The miserable thing looked just like a regular pikachu to her. "Why don't you guys take it to the laboratory? The boss would probably send it over to those scientists, anyway."

"That makes sense," James said.

"Yeah. Let's go!" Jessie said.

Meowth jumped on the table and picked up the cage itself. "Hurry up you guys."

"I'll open the gate for you," Wendy said. The group wandered away without so much as a thank you, but she just smirked. "Idiots," she said to herself.

Jessie and James slammed open the door to the laboratory, making way for Meowth carrying Pikachu. Jessie and James smiled, ready to speak to whoever was around, but then took a look at who was there. The group had been in the laboratory before on a few occasions, when there was usually only a few scientists. But right now there were many scientists, standing before a group of many, many field agents, including Cassidy and Butch, former rivals to them who had now seemed to meet success for every one of their to their many failures.

Jessie looked around, saw Cassidy looking at her with a wry smile, and then turned up her nose. Jessie was determined not to let that person's presence and horrible attitude ruin this moment. She grabbed the cage from Meowth herself and placed it on the nearest table. "Here you are, sir! We're delivering this extremely powerful pokemon!" she said.

"What's this?" the head rocket professor, Nanba, asked them. He was confused, thinking perhaps that it was something important sent from his superiors.

"This is the extremely rare Pikachu!" Jessie said. "We've worked long and hard to find it, but now we've done so, and returned."

"Well, why did you bring it here?" Nanba asked, still confused.

"You want to experiment on it or something, right?" James said.

"Yeah, you know what to do with such a rare pokemon, right?" Meowth said.

"Pikachu isn't rare," a random field agent pointed out.

Jessie glared toward the crowd, she couldn't figure out which one of the many spectators had said so. "This pikachu is rare!" she declared.

"That's right! It's extremely powerful!" James said.

"You'll never find one quite like this!" Meowth said.

"I almost feel bad for watching this train wreak," Butch muttered to Cassidy, who just nodded back. They both just stood there watching, not interfering with the inevitable events.

"Is that right? You've interrupted something important, you realize, but I say let's give it a quick test. It should be useful for this upcoming mission if that's the case," Nanba said. He motioned toward his assistants, who brought out some equipment. "Have your pikachu use an electric attack over here," Nanba said, pointing toward some metal rods.

"Um..." James said. He had a good guess about what might happen if they let Pikachu out, and hesitated.

Jessie had the same misgivings, but what else could they do? They couldn't leave Pikachu in there indefinitely, and this was the only way they could prove its great powers. "Alright! Pikachu, go! Attack that thing!" Jessie said, unlocking the cage.

The cage door opened. Pikachu's ears perked up it stepped out. "Pika," it said, taking a deep breath now that he was out in the open.

"What are you waiting for? Hurry up, thundershock over there!" Jessie ordered.

Pikachu about faced, and looked at the trio with a grin. "Pikachu," it said, and its cheeks sparked. "CHUU!" Pikachu shouted as it let the electric attack go, hitting its three captors.

"Stop it, Pikachu," James begged. "Attack over there! Right there! Please?"

Pikachu looked like it was getting ready to attack again, but still stared at the same target. "Meowth, you know what you have to do," Jessie said in a low voice.

"Got it," Meowth said grudgingly. Meowth leapt over Pikachu, bopping it in the head, and then hopped over to the device.

"CHUUU!" Pikachu aimed the electric attack at Meowth, but the attack was still absorbed by the device so that they could get a reading.

"Hm," the assistant said, reading over the data. "It looks like it's slightly above average, for a Pikachu."

"CHU! CHU! CHUU!" Pikachu said, firing thunderbolts at random areas now.

As one nearly hit Butch, he frowned. "Okay, this shit's stopped being funny now," he said, brandishing a monster ball. "Primeape, go! Knock out that pikachu!"

Primeape punched Pikachu once, and then again, and he appeared to be knocked out as soon as he hit the ground.

"Ah!" Jessie and James said at once.

"Our valuable pikachu!" Jessie said.

"Be more careful, won't you?" James said, grabbing the unconscious pikachu from the ground.

"That's enough, you two," a superior said, stepping forward. "I think we've all had it up to here with this ridiculous show. Don't think this all won't go unreported. Now, go stand quietly over with your fellow field agents. All available field agents are to be on this mission, and you two look free enough."

"Yes, sir," Jessie, James, and Meowth said, and went and stood near the back edges of the crowd. Jessie saw Cassidy and her stupid partner snickering at them and couldn't stand it. The two of them had just been lucky with their exploits, that's all. They had no real reason to act so superior.

They stood and listened along with the rest of the field agents to the information. Apparently some important experimental pokemon had been released. Many talents of Team Rocket as a whole were teaming up to find it. It seemed like most agents would probably be serving as lookouts. As the meeting broke up, Jessie sighed in relief. That had been a splendid failure, and she hoped they could leave without notice now.

No such luck. Cassidy was walking toward them, an irritating smirk on her face. "Jessie, that was hilarious," she said when she caught up with them.

"Right, right," Jessie muttered, turning away as she did. The mass of people leaving kept her from leaving herself right away.

"Too bad I wasn't in a spot where I could just laugh and laugh. You'll have to do something like that again when I am. Except, wait, I don't think 'jester' was your official ranking, is it?" Cassidy put a finger to her head in mock thought.

"Right, get lost," Jessie muttered. Pikachu had probably just been tired from battling them and all of the fruitless attempts to get out of their electricity-proof trap, she thought, as it was more than slightly above average. But it was just their luck that Pikachu would fail at the crucial moment. And now they had to listen to Cassidy blab on and on about it.

"Not that you really have an official ranking, huh? You're lucky at all to still be around, and especially lucky that you were allowed on this important mission. I would have had you locked up, or worse," Cassidy said.

Jessie rolled her eyes. She'd had enough humiliation for one day. Just as Jessie was sure that she could make a break for it, she saw Cassidy latch onto James's arm. Oh, not this angle again, Jessie thought to herself.

"And how about you, James?" Cassidy said, her voice softening as it usually did when she spoke to him. "I could see you were really trying hard here. You must have done your best on this ridiculous mission that Jessie pulled out of her ass."

James blinked in surprise. This had been as much his idea as Jessie's, both she, Meowth, and himself had mutually agreed that Pikachu was very powerful and worth their extreme effort to capture. "Um... Well..." he began.

"Such effort would be better expended toward more fruitful, more sensible goals. How about you leave her behind? You should team up with me and Butch."

James looked away awkwardly. This wasn't the first time that she'd suggested this, and he hadn't really known what to say when she'd talked about it before. "Well..."

"I know you're in trouble thanks to this woman, but I can still make it happen. You won't have to worry anymore," Cassidy assured.

Jessie glared at them. Cassidy seemed to be pressing herself even closer to James, but he seemed oblivious, and just looked away from her. "I'm fine with where I am now, really..." he said.

"You're really loyal, aren't you?" Cassidy said. "I like that, really. I just worry about you. Your loyalty could be better rewarded elsewhere."

"Maybe, I suppose..." James said.

"Think about it, won't you?" Cassidy said. She went closer to him and started to speak softer in his ear. "Maybe we can talk about it tonight... It's going to be cold outside, isn't it? With all these agents here, I know your group won't be first choice to get into a room... But you could be nice and warm in my room, huh? I have a single, but the bed can fit two."

"Um, I'm sure I'll be fine..." James said.

Jessie couldn't believe this woman. "Come on, James, Meowth, let's go," she said loudly.

James looked at Cassidy, who still held onto his arm. "I have to leave," he said.

"Well, if you change your mind, here's my room number," Cassidy said, handing him a piece of paper. "I don't even mind how late it is, come by anytime."

"Let's go, James!" Jessie shouted now.

"What a brazen woman. See you later, James," Cassidy said.

"That was just awful," Jessie said. "Hey, Pikachu, why didn't you show the amazing powers that you've used on us, huh?" Jessie said, holding up the unconscious pokemon.

"Pi..." Pikachu blinked its eyes, coming back to reality. "Pika!" it said, looking around.

"Calm down, mouse," Jessie said.

"Yeah, if you make a fuss, one of the rockets here is just going to attack you again," Meowth said.

Pikachu frowned, supposing that Meowth was right. It didn't make it feel any better, supposing that even out of the cage, it was a definite prisoner. Maybe it could run away, but Pikachu didn't want people that were worse than these three to capture or go after it. "Pika..." Pikachu frowned, but just hopped on Jessie's shoulder. It would figure a way out of this and back to Ash soon, maybe when it had some of its strength back.

"Hey," Jessie said to Wendy.

"Oh, the super powered pikachu outside of its cage? Want to give a demonstration?" Wendy teased.

"No, that might not be a good idea," James said.

"Oh, right. Because it's just so powerful, right?" Wendy said.

"Right," Jessie said. "Can you give us the key to one of those dorms? We're staying here tonight."

"Hm? Nope, I can't do that. So many field agents are here for this mission that all of the extra dorms are completely full. You'll have to sleep outside. I hear it's going to get pretty cold tonight," Wendy said.

"Oh. Okay," James said. Their luck had just gotten worse.

"We left our camping equipment back nearby where the twerp was," Meowth pointed out as they turned away from the main desk.

"Pikachu?" Pikachu suggested.

"Even if we wanted to, you think we could get back there before nightfall?" Meowth said.

"Yeah, you'd like that, wouldn't you, rat?" Jessie said, looking at the pokemon on her shoulder.

"Pikachu..." Pikachu frowned as it looked outside. The sun was about to set.

"We'll just get more camping equipment from supplies, right?" James said.

"Yeah, it's not that hard," Jessie said.

They all went to where the supplies were, and Mondo bowed to them apologetically after they made their request. "So sorry, guys! Everything's already set to go for tomorrow's mission, I don't really have anything to give you right now," he said.

"Huh? Why not? We'd just be using it tomorrow, right?" Jessie said.

"Sorry! It's kind of complicated. I'll see if I can find something, though." Mondo ran off, then came back with a worn-out looking backpack. "Here you go! I found a tent in the way, way back! It's kind of old, so I think we probably should have thrown it out before... So you don't even have to sign it out! Isn't that great?"

"Wonderful," Jessie said dryly.

"Thanks, Mondo," James said.

Outside, the group found a spot and started to put up the tent together. "This is the worst day!" Jessie said.

"That's right! We finally got Pikachu, shouldn't it be a good day?" James whined.

"Well, we still have Pikachu," Meowth pointed out.

"Pika," Pikachu said, turning its head from them. It didn't plan to stay nearby them forever, even if it had no place to run at the moment, especially as the landscape grew dark. It hated to think about the coming night, though. The temperature was already a little cold, and all they had was this shoddy tent. Pikachu frowned, remembering how it had always spent the night curled up in Ash's sleeping bag, warm and toasty until morning came. This was a horrible alternative. "Pikapi..." Pikachu said mournfully.

"Damn that Cassidy, always acting so superior, thinking she can ridicule me just because she's had a little more luck," Jessie said.

"I know! What's with her?" James said. "She's always making fun of me in some backward way."

"Oh, yeah," Jessie said flatly. There was that, too. "It's completely sickening to watch her throw herself at you all the time."

"Throw herself?" James repeated. He thought he may have heard this expression before, though not often. 'Throw herself' could be something like what Jessie did, sometimes hitting James and Meowth when she got too annoyed. Moving forward with her full body weight to make the blow hurt more. Kind of 'throwing herself'. "Um... No, she doesn't do anything like that. She's kind of overly nice, actually."

"Oh? And why might that be?" Jessie said.

"I don't know," James said as he nailed down the peg to the tent.

Jessie rolled her eyes. "It's because she wants to sleep with you, you idiot."

James had heard this expression before too, but not really paid that much attention to it. He'd gotten the idea that it might have a sexual connotation, but that probably wasn't what Jessie meant here, he thought as he recalled the previous conversation. "Yeah, she did invite me to her room and all," he said nonchalantly. "What's the big deal about sleeping in the same bed with someone, though? Why did she have to make a big deal about inviting me? Just to make fun of us needing the help, I guess."

"Jessie, this is all going way above his head," Meowth said. "You just going to let it fly?"

Feeling extremely irritated by the day's events, her own exhaustion, and James's denseness in general, Jessie grabbed James's collar and shook him. "She wants to have sex with you, you idiot!" she yelled.

"What?!" James said, backing away from Jessie. "You don't know that! Why would you even say that?"

"Oh, gee, I don't know, why else would a grown woman invite a grown man to share a bed with her? Why do you think? HUH? What would the one reason be?" Jessie snapped back.

"Come on, Jessie. You're seeing something that's not even there. You and I have shared a bed before, and it didn't mean something like that," James said. "It was just because we only had that much room. Don't read so much into things."

"Ah. That's right," Jessie said. James hadn't ever tried anything with her, not even when they'd shared a bed. Jessie had always assumed that it was either because he didn't want to try with Meowth there to comment, or because he knew that he'd certainly receive an extreme punishment for having done so, because it couldn't be because he didn't want her. What man wouldn't want her, or at least be tempted, after all? It was good that he contained his urges, because she wasn't interested in him like that. Cassidy on the other hand... He should at least be able to see her obvious attraction. "Cassidy doesn't have as much of a space problem as we do," Jessie said. "So, you see now, she only asked you because she, well, you get it now, right?"

"Jessie, please. It's cold, and Cassidy knew the dorms were full... So she invited me to her private room, where there was plenty of room. That's all. It was nothing more than that," James said.

"Hm..." Jessie said. "And what do you think she'd want to do with you in that _private_ room, huh? Just sleep?"

"Probably," James said. "You're reading too much into it, Jessie," he added.

Jessie's face twitched in her irritation. "Meowth... Tell this blockhead that I'm not making this up."

"Yeah... It's kind of obvious, James," Meowth said.

"You're both being ridiculous," James said.

Jessie sighed. She supposed that James was just too embarrassed to talk about this subject, so denied it until the end. Or, Jessie figured, maybe he just didn't want to admit to her, who very much hated Cassidy, just how interested he was in the propositioning. He just didn't want to annoy her one way, so he did in another, by acting like some clueless idiot.

"Done," James said, and then stared at the tent. "Looks like it's going to fall over any second, though."

"Will that really fit all of us?" Meowth said.

"Maybe... Maybe not," James said.

"But if you go to your girlfriend, Meowth and I will _definitely_ have enough room," Jessie said. "So why don't you just go?"

"Huh?" James said.

"Come on, it's not like you aren't going to wake up in the middle of the night with the thought and wander off to her. So you might as well just go now," Jessie said. She bit her lip. No man was worth the grief, she'd decided that a long time ago. And it included him. But unfortunately, the idea of James running off to Cassidy _did_ piss her off. She hated that woman. Why did she have to pick her partner to dote over, anyway? Probably just to annoy her. Once James went and got very warm and comfortable with her, he'd probably accept the idea of joining her team, and Jessie would be left behind. The idea did give her grief. Even if she wasn't attracted to him, he was important to her. And now Jessie wanted to take that grief and shove it down his throat for daring to be the person to inspire her to have these feelings.

"Give it a rest, Jessie, I'm not even-"

"Go ahead, James! I don't care! I bet it's pretty warm inside the building."

"Pika, pikachu," Pikachu said.

"Pikachu said it wants to go in with you, James," Meowth said.

"Oh? Really?" Jessie said. "Yeah, go ahead, please the rodent and yourself. You might as well get what you can from her, no else is offering."

"No matter who it would be, I'm not interested," James said. Hopefully that would be clear enough for Jessie to stop this ridiculous conversation.

"Hmph. Don't even lie," Jessie said.

"It's not a lie," James said.

"You're a man, right? Then it's an undeniable fact that it's always on your mind. I know you've probably been thinking about it all afternoon. So just don't lie," Jessie said. That's right, there was pretty much only one thing that men wanted, right? There's no way James would be the world's only exception.

James sighed. It wasn't like it was the first time he'd heard something like this, but he wasn't interested, and that was the truth, and he'd already said so to both accounts, so what else could he do?

"Pikachu," Pikachu said impatiently.

"Pikachu, are you sure you want to go there, anyway? I mean, you'd be in the same room as humans mating," Meowth said.

"Pika, pikachu. Pika pika," Pikachu said.

"Pikachu says it'll just sit by the vent and let you do what you needed to do, won't bother you at all," Meowth said.

"Go ahead, James. Go take Pikachu and 'do what you need to'. Don't let me stop you or anything," Jessie said.

James's face turned red. The idea of sex alone was mortifying enough, but doing it with a curious pokemon staring from a corner the entire time? "Stop!" James yelled. "I'm not going anywhere."

"Are you sure you don't want to?" Jessie said.

"Just stop it! You're probably mistaken as to Cassidy's intentions, but I don't care, I'm not going to see her either way," James said.

"Your choice," Jessie said, looking away from him.

"Pikachu," Pikachu realized from the conversation that it wouldn't be by a warm heat vent anytime soon, and frowned. Again Pikachu thought of Ash's warm hug and sleeping bag and glared at the people who had taken it away. "Pika CHUUU!" it shouted, shocking them.

The three screamed and Pikachu hopped in the tent. Jessie stood up and went for the flap. "You damn little-" she began, reaching for the tent flap.

"Pika! Pikachu!"

"Jessie, wait," Meowth began. "Pikachu says it'll just keep shocking us if we try to go in the tent."

"Our only shelter!" Jessie said. She glared at James. "I guess now you really want to-"

"Just stop talking about that, please!" James said.

The three of them now sat outside of the tent back to back, shivering as the night went on. "I'll die," Jessie eventually said as the cold wind grew around them. "Held hostage by a damn pikachu. This really is a new low for us, isn't it?"

"We've lived through worse," Meowth said. "Just keep going, we'll make it."

James reached for the tent flap. "Hey, Pikachu," he said.

"Pika?" Pikachu looked up sleepily, in a relaxed and half-asleep state, so it didn't feel too irritated yet.

"Can you let us in now?" James said.

"Please," Jessie begged, shivering.

"We won't bother you, we promise," Meowth said.

"Pika," Pikachu said as it stared at the miserable, shivering group. "Pikachu," it said, nodding.

"Thank goodness!" Jessie said.

The group all climbed in the tent together, and were soon asleep. Pikachu sighed as it also drifted back to unconsciousness. They really were a pitiable lot, it realized. But Pikachu was warmer now surrounded by them, so maybe it wasn't so bad. For now.

The next morning however, the group woke up extra early, and Pikachu felt groggy, and also hungry. It noticed they hadn't eaten either, not even last night. Pikachu imagined meal time with Ash. Brock would give him the perfect amount of delicious food, especially made for his pokemon type.

"Pika pika," Pikachu muttered, its cheeks sparking with irritation. However, it didn't want to expend the energy to attack the people responsible for its predicament at the moment.

"Alright, today's our chance," Jessie said with a determined stance.

"That's right," James agreed, nodding fervently.

"If we can capture this missing pokemon ourselves, we can win back all of the pride we lost yesterday!" Meowth said.

"That's right," Jessie nodded. "Hey," she began, looking at Meowth. "Are you saying we have no pride?"

"That might have been how it seemed. We really made fools of ourselves, didn't we?" James said.

"That's only because this pokemon failed to perform," Jessie said, glaring at Pikachu.

"Pikachu!" Pikachu glared right back. "Pika..." it added.

"I'm kind of hungry too," Meowth said.

"Alright then, breakfast!" James said, dumping out the contents of a box of crackers. "Five crackers. So-"

"Pikachu!" Pikachu leapt up and grabbed the box. It took out two, and then threw the box up, hitting the crackers back to them with its tail.

"You're the smallest of all of us! Why should you get the biggest portion?" Jessie said.

"Pika," Pikachu said, its cheeks sparking in the tiniest of warnings. The three turned away, each taking one cracker with a smile. Pikachu ate its crackers. They were tasteless, stale, and kind of gross. These three were really miserable indeed, Pikachu thought. But after they finished their 'meal', they seemed energized as they headed toward the rocket base, discussing their plan for capturing this apparently powerful experimental pokemon.

They'd never do it, at least not on their own, Pikachu thought to itself. It was amazing how they were still able to keep up their spirits despite their many failures. Ash had failed before, but major failures always had some kind of effect on him. Not that effects couldn't be seen in these three, but they bounced up so fast, it hardly seemed to matter at all. They just needed the next hope to grab onto, and hope could be found anywhere. It was admirable... In a way.

"Hey, what are we going to do with the twerp's pikachu, anyway?" Jessie said.

"Maybe let it rest up and give it the test again," Meowth said.

"Yeah! I agree, I thought it was weird that it was only 'slightly' above average. We should try again," Jessie said.

"Pikachu," Pikachu said, annoyed.

"Maybe we should just give it back to the twerp," James said.

"Pika!" Pikachu agreed happily.

"James?! What are you saying?" Jessie exclaimed.

"Yeah, we worked way too hard to catch Pikachu!" Meowth said.

"It's just, maybe Pikachu's not really going to be all that useful to us or Team Rocket after all," James said with a melancholy tone.

"You say that because you're soft! Way too soft! It's our efforts that captured Pikachu, so we should take whatever benefit we can get from the thing, large or small, so those efforts don't go to waste," Jessie said.

"Yeah... I guess you're right," James said.

"Pika..." Pikachu sighed, exasperated.

"Of course. Now, let's concentrate on our work," Jessie said.

"They'll feed us for lunch," Meowth said.

"Oh! That's right, they will!" James said.

"Don't lose sight of what's really important here," Jessie snapped.

"I won't," James said. He wanted recognition and success with Team Rocket. He'd definitely concentrate on tracking this escaped pokemon.

...But apparently, so would everyone else. There were scores of Rocket agents around, and all Jessie, James, and Meowth could do was run around and attempt to follow directions. They got separated in the mess, and all James could do was stick with Pikachu, who hung around on his shoulder, looking most displeased about the situation.

"How did this pokemon end up escaping?" James asked another agent.

"Blew up the lab it was being held in. Kind of a mess."

"Oh... I see," James said. Yeah, it seemed like the kind of pokemon he and his two companions might not be able to capture on their own, he was starting to realize.

"Pika," Pikachu said from James's shoulder. It seemed like Team Rocket had gotten just what it deserved. And it also seemed like this was the kind of pokemon that Team Rocket shouldn't get hold of again.

"Hey, can you put that thing back in its pokeball?" an agent requested of James.

"It doesn't really have one," James said. He supposed it must be true, he'd never even seen the twerp using one. A little weird.

"Well, hopefully you can control it better than yesterday?"

"I understand that already!" James said.

"Oh, crap," another person said.

"Billy?" James said.

"That would be Butch. I can't believe you two even bothered to show your faces. Your partner's here, isn't she?" Butch asked.

"Yes," James said.

"Well, you two shouldn't have even bothered. Should have just stayed away. It's not like anyone will miss you or even notice that you're gone. Even if someone did, we'd just be damn relieved that you weren't around to fuck things up for us," Butch said.

James said nothing. Butch was just always this hateful to him, he always had been, even before the failures had stacked up this high.

"Yeah, you and that chick should just sail on out of here," Butch said. "That's really the best you can hope for from Team Rocket, right? An escape from it?"

"No," James said confidently. "We'll become successful, we'll reach a speedy success eventually. We'll be the world's best villains, Jessie, Meowth, and I. And we'll always be a part of Team Rocket."

"Fucking delusional, and stupid, campy delusions, at that. You just keep the hell out of my sight," Butch said, wandering off.

James grabbed his binoculars, and began looking around as he was supposed to. It was kind of boring, though. Things didn't liven up until someone shouted and pointed into the forest. "Over there!"

Other rocket members got ready with their equipment. A superior got ready with a bull horn. "It's been chased out into the open by another team! Get all your equipment ready! Trainers, get ready to attack if needed."

The battle began as the pokemon went toward them in an attack. Various rocket members attacked it.

"Pika!" Pikachu said, standing up straight on James's shoulder.

James hesitated to reach for his own pokeball. "You want to help, too?" he asked.

"Pikachu!" Pikachu shouted. That wasn't right. It wasn't going to help them. It was going to help this escaped pokemon. "CHUU! CHUU!" Pikachu said, bouncing around, attacking various rocket member's pokemon.

"Hey, Pikachu!" James said, chasing after it. "Get back here! Stop that!" James finally caught up with Pikachu. He scooped it up easily as Pikachu was out of breath, expending so much energy so quickly as it had tried to knock out all rocket pokemon. "Don't do that, you'll us get in trouble," James said as he held Pikachu.

"There's trouble all right."

James realized whose feet he was looking at. "...Barry," he said.

"That's Butch. Not that I expect someone like you to remember something like a detail from fifteen fucking minutes ago. You can't even remember whose side you're on, after all," Butch said.

"Um... I really didn't..." James began.

Butch just grinned. He'd take any excuse to attack this joker, and treason was a pretty strong one. "Let's get this guy," he said to the agents next to him.

"W-Wait," James said. "I wasn't doing anything."

"Come on, James. We all know this is your super rare pikachu, right? Who else would have a pokemon this rare?" Butch mocked.

"Oh, well, maybe, but Pikachu's under control now! It's practically KO'd. See?" James held out the exhausted pokemon.

Butch's satisfied grin didn't disappear as he and other agents ordered their pokemon to attack James and Pikachu. He flew away violently. "This is bad!" he shouted.

"Hey, was that James?" Meowth said to Jessie from the other side of the crowd.

"Who knows," Jessie said, feeling sulky now that she'd also realized that this escaped pokemon was too powerful for them to capture on their own.

Nearby in a more secluded area, Cassidy spoke on the radio with Butch. "So, you didn't get it, huh?" she said.

"Yeah, we aren't giving up for today though, so still keep your eye out for it. It's not looking good, though," Butch said.

"That's too bad," Cassidy said. "You know, I bet we could capture this thing on our own, with no other agents to get in the way," she said.

"Could be right. There's been some of that 'getting in the way' around here," Butch said.

"You'll have to tell me about it later," Cassidy said.

"Yeah, I'll tell you all about the ridiculous crap that went on."

"Oh really? I'll look forward to that."

"See you later then, Cassidy," Butch said as they ended their conversation.

Cassidy sighed, taking her position as the lookout yet again. She peered around with precision, and saw nothing. From the conversation she had just had with Butch, she really couldn't expect to see anything, either, the thing had gone in the opposite direction. But she wasn't one to shirk her duties. And, seeing what came into her view next, she was glad she hadn't.

James, appearing a little worse for wear, walking around with a pikachu. Cassidy put down her binoculars and wandered over to him. "Hey, James!" she called, waving her hands.

"Hm?" James said as he noticed her. What was Cassidy doing here? Well, he hadn't seen her up at the main site, but then again, he had been having trouble finding Jessie after they'd been separated. "Oh, Cassidy. Hello," he said.

"Pikachu?" Pikachu said. This was the person James and Jessie had been arguing about before, it realized.

"Didn't think I'd see you around here. How did that happen?" Cassidy asked.

"Well... Pikachu got a little... Well... Um, then I got blown away from the area with it," James poorly explained the situation.

Cassidy didn't mind his lack of specifics, since she got the general idea. So apparently the pikachu was responsible? She could thank the pokemon for that. Finally, she'd have some time with him without Jessie glowering over their shoulders. She wasn't around, was she? Cassidy peered around. No, she wouldn't be, Cassidy was sure that James was the only one she'd seen.

"I'll just head back to base to meet Jessie... Not much left I can do here," James said.

"I'll be picked up tomorrow, so don't waste your energy," Cassidy said.

"Oh? You're-"

"I'm just one of many posted look-outs. You could still help with that," Cassidy said.

"Oh. Yeah, I guess I should do that," James said.

"Pika," Pikachu said, frowning. It would shock them both the moment they found something.

"Adorable pokemon," Cassidy said.

"This thing's way too much trouble, even if it's 'cute'," James said with a sigh.

"Oh? Too super powered?" Cassidy said.

James didn't respond to that question. He supposed she was mocking him again, the way she and Butch mocked their group all the time.

"So, what are you going to do with it, since it's so much trouble?" Cassidy said.

"Who knows," James said. "Give him back to the kid we took it from, I guess. He seemed to like his pokemon enough, he's probably the only one that can really handle Pikachu, I guess." James looked away from Cassidy. He expected to be mocked again. Even Jessie, his own partner, had mocked him for being too soft when he suggested something like this. James supposed she was smirking smugly at what he'd just said, the same as she and her partner did every time he and his team failed.

But as he looked over toward her he saw that she now just smiled softly. "Wow, James. You're a really kind person," Cassidy commented.

"Hm?" James said. He might be imaging it, but it almost seemed like a compliment.

"I like that," Cassidy said, grabbing his hand. "I really like you, you know."

"Oh..." James said. He was a little confused. But this was the same game she always played, wasn't it? Be overly harsh on Jessie for her failures, be overly nice to him while reminding him of his failures through her pity while indirectly mocking Jessie. But Jessie wasn't there at the moment... But she still seemed to be being a little too nice to him. And what was with the hand holding? It wasn't as if he didn't know to follow her. She looked at him with a happy smile, and he looked away, feeling a little awkward, but still walked forward with her, hand in hand.

"I'm really glad I was able to see you... We hardly get to say two words to each other without Jessie interrupting, huh?" Cassidy said.

"Well, I guess not," James said. Jessie was pretty annoyed whenever Cassidy was around, including when Cassidy's attention completely focused on him, ignoring Jessie's presence. He'd figured that was just part of their game to annoy each other.

"Hmm..." Cassidy said. "I was wondering, are you and Jessie... Involved?"

"Involved? What do you mean by that?" James asked. There were a lot of things they were involved in, her question seemed too vague.

"You know, like a couple, doing couple-ish things while you're on the job..."

"No!" James said immediately. "Absolutely not. I don't even think about her like that at all," he said. Would Cassidy shout at him and call him a liar, the same as Jessie had when it came to her?

No, Cassidy just smiled happily in relief. Of course, James wouldn't be interested in an offensive woman like her in that context, even if he were loyal to her as a work partner, she thought. "I guess you're tired of hearing things like that?" she asked. People insisting that he was interested in someone like Jessie when he wasn't was probably endlessly frustrating.

"Yeah," James confirmed. Exactly. Why did people have to insist he had those kind of interests when he didn't?

"I know the feeling," Cassidy said. "I mean, Butch and I get along okay, and people seem to think that because of that and that we're the opposite sex that we'll automatically be a couple."

James raised an eyebrow. Did people really think like that?

"It's not that I haven't thought about it," Cassidy said. "But I'm not interested in him like that. I'm interested in someone else." Cassidy squeezed James's hand, giving him a major hint as to who 'someone else' could be.

"Well, I'm not really interested in anyone like that," James said. "Romance, and especially sex, I'm not interested."

Cassidy giggled a second and grinned at him. "James, don't tell me you're a virgin?" she said.

"Yeah," James said. He avoided eye contact. He wasn't really ashamed of it, he was actually kind of happy about that fact, but he knew there was a stigma that came with that label.

Cassidy grinned. "I could tell. But it's okay. I think it's kind of sweet. Don't worry, you'll probably be interested once you get together with a nice girl that you like. A patient one that will help you enjoy it."

"I'm not worried," James said. His lack of interest wasn't worrying to him, he just wasn't interested, and that was that.

"Oh, good," Cassidy said. He shouldn't be worried, because she was that girl and had already approached him, wasn't that right? "Yeah, you really don't need to worry," she said as she approached the campsite. "You know, I don't mind you staying tonight, but there's only one tent. We'll have to share. I hope you don't mind."

"No, I don't mind at all. Thanks," James said.

"Oh, good," Cassidy said. "I really, _really_ don't mind, you know."

"That's good. Thanks again. It's a lot of help," James said.

"Pikachu," Pikachu sighed. This woman was coming on really strong to James, but he didn't appear to get it at all. Now Pikachu knew what the argument the previous night had been about.

"What's with you?" James said to the pokemon on his shoulder.

"Pika," Pikachu turned away.

"Okay James, let's get started... Wait, are you hungry, first of all? I'll feed you and your pokemon," Cassidy said.

"Pika!" Pikachu shouted gratefully.

James supposed that Pikachu had given away just how hungry they were, and it might be rude to refuse. Otherwise, he may want to refuse simply based on the 'rival' status between his team and Cassidy's team. But Jessie and Meowth were probably scarfing down with the other agents, he was the only one who was unlucky enough to be stuck with this pikachu. He should just accept this offer. "That would be nice, thanks," he said.

After eating, Pikachu found a comfy spot to nap, and James and Cassidy turned their attention to the skies, as well as down below with the binoculars, keeping their eyes open for this escaped pokemon, who could fly with some kind of psychic powers, as well as anything else. It was kind of boring, James noted, not as exciting as it had been in the large group. It also lacked the exciting anticipation of tracking the twerp, since they had kept track of his movements specifically and knew he would eventually show up. Cassidy was just one of many lookouts so that the large group as a whole wouldn't miss when or where this pokemon actually showed up. So, they had the experience of being a probe that probably wouldn't see anything at all.

Cassidy started conversation with him several times, though. Including one notable one. "So, James, things really must be pretty tough for you, huh?" Cassidy said.

"Um... In a way, I suppose," James said.

"Well, things could be better... You given any thought to my offer? Butch and I have some pretty big plans in store. We could use an extra hand once we get started."

James felt a little awkward with this offer, the same as he had before, only more, because this time he thought there was a possibility that she was serious. If she was or wasn't, the answer wouldn't change. It was true that Cassidy and Butch were already pretty successful, but they just weren't his team, they weren't his companions. He'd just keep trying his best with Jessie and Meowth. He had full confidence that while they'd failed together, they'd soon reach a speedy success together. Either way, he was comfortable with them, and knew he wouldn't be with Cassidy and Butch. He just wasn't sure how to refuse.

"I don't..." James began. He didn't want to, then the answer would be why? "I mean, I'm not..." Not interested? She'd just try and interest him. "I'm just... Going to stick with the group I'm in now." If he didn't offer an explanation, maybe she wouldn't go any deeper than that.

"No pressure... But the offer's always open," Cassidy said, putting her hand on James's shoulder.

Well, it was good that there was no pressure, James thought, because he'd always refuse. It was good that they could just shelve the idea for now.

As the daylight faded to the point where they could no longer observe anything, James helped Cassidy start the campfire and make dinner, then they and the pokemon ate.

"Pikachu..." Pikachu sighed happily, feeling full. This wasn't Brock's food, but a lot better than it had been this morning, or yesterday, with nothing at all. Soon it would be back with Ash, Pikachu assured itself. Pikachu was pretty sure the person next to it was going to just give it back. The other rockets didn't seem to want it around that much. Pikachu thought of how worried Ash might be at the moment, and frowned, but then relaxed. It would soon be back with Ash again, and hopefully before the Indigo league battles that he'd so been looking forward to.

James stared to the sky, wondering if Jessie and Meowth were worried about him at this point. They'd probably heard about what happened. But they'd also probably had their own assigned work to do. All he could do now was to just sit here until morning. He glanced toward Cassidy, and was a little startled to see that she was looking at him.

"Kind of chilly tonight, isn't it?" Cassidy said, placing one of her hands over his.

"Yeah," James agreed. Not near as bad as last night, though, when the wind had made that chill seem all the worse.

"It's okay... I know a way to stay warm..." Cassidy said.

"Yeah," James said absent-mindedly. They'd be warm inside the tent. It had been alright last night when Pikachu had finally allowed them in.

"James, you probably already know this, but, I really like you," Cassidy said.

James looked at her, paying close attention now. She seemed rather earnest in this proclamation. She had acted like she liked him at times, but he was hesitant to believe that she really did, since their two groups had always been such strong rivals.

"I really want you to know that. It's not just... Well, I really care about you. I have since we first met. Do you remember that?" Cassidy said.

James paused a moment in thought, trying to recall. He and Cassidy had first met during rocket training, a little more than a year ago. It had been a little after he'd first met Jessie, but his partner hadn't been around right then. He'd walked Cassidy from the mess hall back to the dorms, where they'd met up with Jessie. She and Cassidy had fought the same as they always had, apparently it hadn't been the first time the two of them had met. But even before she'd found out who he'd been working with, Cassidy had been kind of pleasant to him, James recalled.

"You really helped me out... I'd been just about to give up, but your kindness changed my mind," Cassidy said. Such a kindness didn't really belong on this team. Just like herself, James was someone who didn't really belong here at all, but was stuck here through various circumstances, likely because it had been his last resort to find any kind of success in life, Cassidy thought. She wanted to help him with that, the same as he'd helped her... But if he didn't accept her help, that was that... Still, it didn't mean they couldn't be together.

"Cassidy, what are you- Are you feeling okay?" James asked.

Cassidy realized she'd been leaning a little too close to him. She moved back, but only slightly so they could both be comfortable. "James... I want to be with you. I have for a long time."

"We're here together now, right?" James said.

"Right," Cassidy said happily. She put her arm around him, started to play with his hair.

James looked at her dubiously. He was starting to think that Jessie's assessment of her intentions with him might not be totally off. Not that it was definitely true, just that it was in the realm of possibilities. He may as well ask and find out. "Cassidy... What exactly do you want me to do here?"

"Well... You could start by kissing me," Cassidy said.

"Ah?" James said, his eyes widening in surprise. "I-I-I don't think I'd really want to do something like that."

"Why not?" Cassidy said.

"Well... I'm just not really into anything like that," James said.

"Hm?" Cassidy said, looking at him with a smile. "Don't tell me you've never even kissed anyone, James," she said.

"Well... Not really..." James said in a small voice.

"Don't worry. I don't mind. You don't have to worry about doing anything wrong with me, because I won't make fun of you or anything. So you can just enjoy kissing me, okay?" Cassidy said.

"Well... I'm not sure I'd really enjoy it," James said.

"I'm sure you will," Cassidy said, patting his hand gently. "Pretty much everyone does. So just go ahead. You don't have to worry when you're with me."

James's first inclination was to refuse, but took another look at Cassidy. She seemed so hopeful, so patient. She just wanted him to have a chance to possibly enjoying kissing her, did she? Kissing itself wasn't really sexual, James thought, though it was often associated with couples. Maybe he _would_ like it, since 'everyone' did. Just kissing her this time, since she seemed to really want him to... It wouldn't hurt to try it just once, would it?

James put his hands on Cassidy's shoulders. He noticed she closed her eyes and faced him. His hands were trembling a little. He was pretty nervous, he might as well just get it over with. James leaned down and kissed her quickly on the lips, then moved back, facing away from her now. He blushed. It really didn't feel natural at all, doing this kind of thing.

"There... Did you like that?" Cassidy asked.

"Well... Kind of..." James said awkwardly. He hadn't really disliked it, even if it had seemed a little weird.

"Good," Cassidy said. She ran her hand down his back, then stood up. "I think I'll head to bed... It's getting a little late. Will you join me?" she asked.

"Sure, in a moment," James said.

As Cassidy walked away, he grabbed the bucket of water to put the fire out. As James leaned down, he saw Pikachu looking at him with a wry smile. "Chu? Pikachu?" it said, pointing toward Cassidy.

James didn't need Meowth's translation to get the gist of what Pikachu was asking. "Not you, too," he said. "Jessie and Meowth... They were being ridiculous. Nothing like that is going on. I wish everyone would just forget about it."

James put out the fire, then climbed in the tent next to Cassidy. He was a little close to her, but it was nothing like the cramped situation from the previous night. He was felt fairly comfortable in the more spacious environment, and soon fell asleep.

Pikachu listened curiously outside of the tent. Being in the same room as mating humans was one thing, sharing a small tent with them might be a little more problematic. But it didn't really hear anything. Pikachu wasn't sure what it could expect to hear, though, it didn't know exactly how things went for humans. It would just take a quick peek. "Pi?" Pikachu said as it stuck its head into the tent. Nothing was happening. They appeared to both be asleep, pretty much. Pikachu sighed, then curled up inside the tent and went to sleep itself.

Cassidy was a little surprised. She hadn't expected things to go all the way, since James was being so adorably shy about everything, but she'd thought that he might try something more when alone with her like this. But he didn't do anything at all.

He really was sweet, wasn't he, Cassidy thought happily. Yeah, he was a real gentleman. She couldn't find his hesitations to jump right into something as anything other than endearing. Cassidy knew she hadn't made a mistake when she'd decided to pursue him as a different kind of 'partner'. He was absolutely worthy, she thought as she drifted off to sleep.

*

"James! What happened with you?" Jessie demanded as she greeted him at the base. She glared at Cassidy, who was holding onto his arm as they walked into the lobby. Again with this, she was completely sickening, Jessie thought.

"Oh, well..." James said, not wanting to get caught up in the middle of an argument between the two. "It was Pikachu, he got me in trouble."

"I'd better get going," Cassidy said to James, ignoring Jessie's presence. "See you later," she said, and leaned up and gave James a kiss on the cheek.

"Cassidy, there you are," Butch said. He looked over at James. "Hey, guess I'll get the paperwork to report yesterday's treason incident. Your interference could have been a major part of why we didn't get the damn pokemon. Don't think it won't go unpunished."

"Butch, give it a rest," Cassidy said, waving her hand dismissively. "He just couldn't control the pikachu, it's not worth pursuing like real treason would be."

Butch looked from Cassidy to James, then looked away again. "Fine," he muttered, then walked away along with his partner.

James sighed in relief. He wasn't sure his reputation here could go any lower, but not having that report filed on him could only be a good thing.

"So," Jessie began humorlessly. "You spent the night with her, huh?"

And now James could sigh for a different reason. He was getting tired of this. Why were they even making a big deal about it, anyway? Even if he had wanted to 'sleep' with her, why would that be an issue, why would it be interesting to anyone? But James didn't, and no one believed him.

"James, did you and her-" Meowth began.

"Nothing like that happened! Cut it out, you two!" James shouted.

"Pika, pikachu. Pi pika," Pikachu said, waving a finger.

"Really? She tried, but James wasn't getting it at all? Sounds funny," Meowth said.

"Stop it, Pikachu, don't give them any more ideas, she wasn't trying anything," James said.

"Chuu, pikachu," Pikachu said.

"What? He kissed her, though?" Meowth said.

"Um... Well..." James's face turned hot with embarrassment. How he wished Pikachu hadn't been there. They were really going to get ideas now. "It's not-"

Jessie let out a long, labored sigh. "Just stop, James," she said.

"Huh?" James said, turning toward his friend.

"Stop denying things and hiding them. It's obvious that you want her," Jessie said.

"Why would you say that?" James asked.

"That's why you let her hang all over in public like that, isn't it? You really enjoy it, right? It's because you like her, isn't that it?"

"Oh, well..." James began, fidgeting awkwardly. He hadn't really been uncomfortable with what Jessie mentioned. He didn't really hate Cassidy. He felt a little more comfortable around her now that he knew she liked him as a person and wasn't just being nice to him for the sake of making fun of Jessie and their current situation.

"It's true, isn't it? I hate her, but that doesn't have anything to do with you. I'm not jealous or anything, so stop acting like I am. Just go ahead and do whatever you want with her," Jessie said.

"But I don't want-" James began.

"I said to stop!" Jessie said. "It's not any of my business. I don't want to hear anything else about it."

"Good," James said. He didn't want to hear anything else about it, either.

Jessie raised an eyebrow at his reaction, but she was mainly glad to drop the subject, and that she didn't have to look at Cassidy at the moment. "Now, we have to go back to our campsite from before. Mondo says he can't check out any more camping equipment to us," Jessie said.

"No way! I guess we need to take care of what we have, then," James said.

"That's it exactly," Meowth said. "Let's get moving. The balloon's already ready to go."

The group ran to the roof of the rocket complex, and James felt happy as the balloon rose into the air. He really felt more comfortable with this than other rocket missions. Even though this wasn't really a mission, just a 'find needed supplies' sort of thing. He felt free there, watching the world pass by underneath them, and was happy to be back to their regular routine. What would they do, now that they had Pikachu? He didn't really want to break his good mood to think about it.

Jessie looked uneasily over at Pikachu. "Don't even think about it," she said to him. "You'll fly away too if you try to blow us away from up here."

"Pika," Pikachu said adamantly. It understood what Jessie was saying. Still, going up on this ridiculous balloon willingly had it feeling as ridiculous as the rest of this group. But they were going back toward where Ash was, and that was a good thing.

They traveled through the woods, and saw a pidgetto flying by. It seemed to be in quite a hurry as it flew down. The group looked. "Oh, it's the twerp," Jessie said with little interest.

"Pikapi!" Pikachu exclaimed.

"We're up too high for him to get us," Meowth said.

"But we've still been spotted, and that's a pain," Jessie said.

"Pika," Pikachu said, standing near the edge.

"Hey, you ain't thinking of jumping, are you?" Meowth said. "At this height-"

"Don't do something like that," James said, pulling Pikachu backward.

"Pi?" Pikachu said.

James pulled the string to lessen the amount of hot air, and the balloon gradually lowered.

"Hey, what do you think you're doing?" Jessie said.

"Come on, Jessie, this pikachu is-" James began.

"You're going to mess things up!" Jessie said, grabbing his hand to stop him from manning the balloon's controls.

"Just wait a minute, listen-" James said.

"Too late," Meowth sighed. They'd lowered to the point where they could see the group of brats and their pokemon clearly.

"Pikapi!" Pikachu said.

"Pikachu!" Ash exclaimed. Now at a safe distance, Pikachu leapt from the balloon into Ash's arms.

"There, you see," Jessie said, pushing James backwards.

"You guys," Ash said hatefully as he stared at the group. They reached the ground, James now close enough to see that Ash's eyes were red, either from crying or lack of sleep. "I don't believe you! Pikachu's my friend, you can't steal it! How dare you take Pikachu and run away like that!"

"It's what they're always trying to do, isn't it?" Misty said.

"But we-" James began.

"Get out of here!" Ash yelled. "We'll help you with that!"

"Come on twerp, you have the damn pokemon back already," Jessie said.

"Yeah, what do we want with a pikachu that's just 'slightly' above average?" Meowth said.

"Enough! You guys need to be taught a lesson!" Ash said.

"Pika!" Pikachu agreed.

"Pikachu! Thunderbolt!" Ash yelled.

"Pika CHUUUUU!" Pikachu yelled as it unleashed its powerful electric attack. The rockets went flying and screaming.

"Only slightly above average? No way!" Jessie said.

"That's right, that pikachu is way more powerful than that!" James said.

"Oh nice, agree with us now, huh? A little too late, isn't it?! You're the one that let our catch go!" Jessie accused.

"It was a mistake!" James said.

"We'll get Pikachu again!" Meowth said.

"We're blasting off!" they all yelled at once as they flew away.

"Pikachu," Ash said in relief, hugging his pokemon and sniffling. "Are you okay?"

"Pikachu!" Pikachu confirmed happily.

"Thank goodness.. I'm glad... I haven't stopped looking for you since you left... I'm so happy to see you again, Pikachu!" Ash said, hugging his pokemon and crying.

"It's a good thing, huh Ash?" Misty said. "Now you can still enter the league challenge."

"As long as I have Pikachu, I'm okay!" Ash said.

"Hey, come on-" Brock began, but Pikachu was way ahead of him.

"Pika!" Pikachu!" Pikachu said fervently, frowning at Ash.

"I think I get what Pikachu is saying," Brock said.

"What's that?" Ash asked.

"That it's not just about you! That you _and_ your pokemon have worked way too long and way too hard to just give up! Now get over there and register!" Misty ordered, smacking Ash in the head.

"Right... Fine... I get it," Ash said. He looked at Pikachu with a determined expressed. "I'll try my best not to let all of you down," he said.


	2. Ditto

"Just one..." Meowth said, trudging along with Jessie and James. "If we hadn't been greedy, maybe just grabbed one pokeball when their backs were turned and ran off, we wouldn't be going back empty handed, now."

"Who's greedy?" Jessie said. "If we'd just used our pokemon's moves quicker and cut them down, we would have been able to escape with all of the pokemon!"

"But, we were going against all of Professor Oak's high level pokemon. Maybe we didn't have a chance," James pointed out.

"Then that's where we're going wrong. We just need to pile up all the pokeballs, steal them all at once, so there are no pokemon left to fight against us," Jessie said.

"And then what about the brats? The twerp can be obnoxious without his pokemon, and we can't shove him in a pokeball," Meowth said.

"Then of course, we just tie up all the twerps!" James declared.

"Yes! Pile up every damn pokeball and tie up every twerp! Then we can't lose!" Jessie said.

"Yes!" James agreed with excitement.

"But it might be easier to do on a smaller scale," Meowth said.

"Hm. I guess that's right," Jessie said in a moment of realization.

"Lots of small scale plans, and so we'll have piles and piles of pokemon to present to the boss!" James said.

"That's right!" Jessie and James said together.

"And we should stick with the twerp," Meowth said. "His pokemon are totally powerful! His pikachu is even more powerful than before. If it was 'slightly above average' before, how about now?"

"We know well it was more than 'slightly' above average," Jessie said. "And you're right, it's even more powerful now than it was then."

"If we could just get the correct reading for Pikachu's power..." James said.

"That's why we're going here now, right?" Jessie said.

"Yeah! We'll just see Mondo! He should let us have one of those machines!" Meowth said.

"And he'll feed us, too!" James said.

"But..." Jessie began. "Well, let's not gather too much attention to ourselves... No need for everyone to know we've come back empty handed."

James and Meowth nodded in agreement.

"You guys!" Mondo exclaimed when he saw them. "It's been a while, hasn't it? It's good to see you all!"

"Shhh," Jessie and James said, pushing forward.

"Is something wrong?" Mondo asked.

"No need to make that big a deal of us being here," James said.

"That's right, we're not celebrities or anything," Jessie said. The three of them laughed nervously together.

"You failed again, huh guys?" Mondo said. The group twitched as he said it. "Don't worry! Everyone has their own setbacks. You're both awesome, I know you'll make it out of this slump! Anyway, let's have lunch together now, okay?"

"Okay," the group happily agreed. They were led to a picnic table outside, where Mondo piled food on top, and they began to eat.

"I've got plenty of Pokemon food, too! So, don't be shy about fueling up your pokemon, okay?" Mondo said.

"Thanks Mondo, you're a pretty helpful guy," Jessie said. She and James released all of their pokemon.

"I guess I should feed mine too, huh?" Mondo said. "Go, Tauros! Ditto!"

"Oh, you've still got that Ditto, do you?" Jessie said.

"That's right! Ditto is an amazing Pokemon! I haven't done so before, but with Cassidy and Butch's new capture, I've been thinking of trying to breed it."

"Breeding? You think a lot of these blobs would be helpful?" Jessie said.

"It really does take a talented trainer for that kind of pokemon, otherwise Ditto won't be as powerful as the pokemon it copies," James said.

"Don't remind me," Jessie said with a sigh.

"That ditto trainer was way too powerful," Meowth said.

"And annoying," Jessie added.

"A powerful ditto trainer? I'd want to meet them! But anyway, I wasn't talking about breeding for more ditto. Ditto is a pokemon that can breed with any other pokemon, you know!" Mondo said.

"Yeah, Ditto are like that," Meowth said. "The gender doesn't even matter, they can just transform to either male or female versions of whatever pokemon they want. It's weird."

"Ditto," Mondo's ditto said unhappily at the comment.

"It's okay, Ditto," Mondo assured. "It just give you endless options for love."

"When you breed pokemon, does it really have to involve a concept like love?" James said.

"Of course, James!" Meowth said. "It's the same with pokemon as it is with humans."

"James has a point. With humans it doesn't really have to involve love, either," Jessie said.

"Don't be so jaded, you two!" Mondo said happily. "You're both wonderful people, and I'm sure you'll find love some day."

"Right," Jessie said with a sigh.

"I'm not really interested in that kind of thing," James said.

"Jessie, cheer up, please, you're absolutely gorgeous," Mondo said. "And James... It's so sad... Sad to hear you talk like you seem to have given up on all that love has to offer."

"I haven't given up, I'm just not interested," James said. He looked across the table. Jessie, Meowth, and Mondo all looked utterly unconvinced.

"Come on, James. Everyone wants to find love," Meowth said.

"And then everyone, especially men, want to do other things, too," Jessie said.

"Th-that's right," Mondo said, blushing as he looked at Jessie.

"I'm getting sick of hearing James saying things like 'I'm not interested in stuff like that' all the time. The facade's getting tiring," Jessie said.

"You don't have to worry, James! Love is a wonderful thing! Made for wonderful people like you!" Mondo assured.

"Yeah, and if you keep that up, people are going to start to think you're damaged. I bet even Cassidy will stop throwing herself at you," Jessie said.

"Oh? Is there something going on between James and Cassidy?!" Mondo asked.

"Not really, James is too dense for there to be," Meowth said.

"Oh, that's too bad," Mondo said.

"Damaged?" James repeated Jessie's previous words.

"Yeah, really. If someone was talking like you and telling the truth, they'd be damaged. Lacking something basically human," Jessie said.

"James, did something happen to make you damaged?" Meowth asked.

"He's not damaged!" Mondo insisted. "You're just shy, huh? I kind of am, too."

"Yeah, I guess so," James said.

"Cassidy is a wonderful woman. I bet a love with her would be truly beautiful! But if it works out or not, I know you'll find someone. There's no way someone like you will miss out on life's greatest experiences! There's no way any of us here will!" Mondo said.

"Right," James said, agreeing though he really didn't agree. It was better than arguing. Mondo was being way too nice to argue, anyway. But it was making him think. Life's greatest experiences, huh? His parents had said something like that when he'd told them he wasn't interested in things like that. They'd said he'd change his mind once he grew older. Was sex really that big of deal? Was he really missing out on something 'essentially human' because he was shy or damaged?

It was something to think about. Was he shy, James considered? He didn't particularly want to see a woman, or for that matter another man, naked or anything, but he supposed if he saw it by incidentally, or just by accident, that would be fine. He and Jessie had both seen each other in a state of undress several times, it hadn't been that big a deal. He'd just looked away politely and didn't have a second thought about it. The idea of sex didn't really embarrass him either, as long as people didn't start talking about the concept and how it related to him. So no, James didn't think he was overly shy.

Was he damaged? His experiences at home had left him pretty wary of romance and sex, including the label of 'love'. The relationship his parents had tried to force him into... That had been uncomfortable. Disturbing. Childish crushing aside, he hadn't 'loved' Jessebelle in the least, he hadn't wanted anything to do with her after getting to know her. The idea of marrying her, consummating that relationship, being trapped in some mundane lifestyle with a kid or two and having those kids continue this cycle yet again, it left him feeling nauseated. It made him a cog in some machine, not a person, he thought.

But not everyone approached love and romance the same way his family did, and not every woman was like Jessebelle. Was he really missing out on something wonderful, something very essential to being a human, because that experience had left him so badly damaged? Well, he hadn't even been interested in sex even before then, except as a general curiosity since so many others seemed to be interested in that kind of thing. But maybe he really had been kidding himself all along... It didn't feel right, but everyone seemed to think he was repressing his feelings, so maybe it really was true, no matter how much he himself was convinced that it wasn't, James considered.

"Ditto, are you full?" Mondo asked.

"Ditto!" Ditto confirmed happily.

"Good, that's good," Mondo said, then sighed. "I really wish Ditto could find love with Cassidy's capture. That would be really helpful for Team Rocket if there were offspring, huh? But someone as low ranking as me won't be allowed near it to even give Ditto a chance," Mondo said. "Sorry, Ditto... I'll try harder so you can also find beautiful love."

"What's this capture you keep mentioning?" Jessie asked.

"You didn't hear?" Mondo said.

"No, we've been traveling the orange islands for a few months," Jessie said.

"Oh, then I can tell you all about it! It was wonderful! Cassidy and Butch became the first Team Rocket members to capture a legendary pokemon! A great victory in Team Rocket history!"

The group of three stopped eating and stared at Mondo. "They caught..." James began.

"A legendary pokemon?!" Jessie raged.

"Which one?" Meowth asked.

"The legendary Moltres! They were gone for weeks and no one thought they would succeed, but they did! Absolutely commendable! The boss agreed!" Mondo said.

"Moltres?" Jessie said.

"We saw that one!" Meowth said.

"That's right, we saw all of them," James said.

"Moltres, Zapdos, and Articuno, just flying around. And even Lugia," Meowth said.

"Damn it, we should have caught them all right then! Then we'd be the ones being commended!" Jessie said.

"There, there, I'm sure you'll all have your own moment in the sun soon," Mondo said.

As Mondo cleaned up, Jessie motioned to James and Meowth, and they all moved in close to speak softly with each other. "I bet it's a lie, or a trick somehow. We should go check and see just what those two are actually doing," Jessie said.

"But we didn't want to draw attention to ourselves... If they really have a legendary pokemon, I bet lots of people will be looking at it or guarding it," James pointed out.

"That's why we sneak around! We're Team Rocket members, aren't we? We're trained for that kind of thing!" Jessie said.

"Is everything okay, guys?" Mondo asked curiously.

"Fine, we're fine," Jessie assured.

"Yeah, it's nothing, Mondo," Meowth confirmed.

"Oh, it looked like you might be discussing something serious," Mondo said.

"We were just wondering if you could get us one of those machines that measures the power of electric-type pokemon," Meowth said.

"It would be really helpful," James said.

"Sorry, guys! I don't work with those kinds of supplies," Mondo said.

"Ah, is that right, thanks anyway," Jessie said, then turned to James and Meowth when he walked away again. "Let's go see what kind of trick they're pulling."

"So we can try the same?" James said.

"Not a bad idea," Meowth said. "I bet they couldn't rat on us if they were using the same trick."

"Forget it! We'll uncover their trick, and then get to the top of Team Rocket honestly!" Jessie insisted.

"Right!" James and Meowth quickly agreed.

The three of them asked around not so subtlety, and found out that Moltres was being held in a gym in a lab. They went around the other side, and began to peek through the windows. "We can't see anything with all of this lab equipment blocking the windows," James complained.

"I guess we have to move somewhere else to get a better view," Jessie said.

The group tip-toed around, and then heard a door slam. Peering around to the source of the noise, they saw Cassidy and Butch standing and staring at them, folding their arms and smirking as they did.

"Well well, just look who it is," Butch said. "Knew I saw someone sneaking around here."

"What could you all even be up to?" Cassidy asked, narrowing her eyes at them.

"Yeah, I haven't seen any of you around lately," Butch said. "Finally re-capture that rare pikachu?"

"That pikachu is different from any other pikachu!" Meowth insisted.

"Yeah! It was only tired before, that's why it only registered as 'slightly' above average!" Jessie said.

"Right! It's shown far more power than that!" James agreed.

"Oh shit, I think they're actually serious," Butch said, looking over his shoulder at Cassidy.

Cassidy shrugged, then looked over at Jessie. "Jessie, I suggest you get out of here before I call security."

"Too afraid to deal with us yourself?" Jessie challenged.

"Can't be bothered," Cassidy said casually. She then turned to James. "So, James, you want to see the legendary pokemon we've captured? I'd he happy to show it to you myself."

Jessie glared at Cassidy. She couldn't even believe her rival, wrapping her arm around James's like they were about to go on a date or something. And as usual, clueless James seemed to think nothing of it.

"Well... Yeah, I did kind of want to see it," James said.

"Hey there-" Jessie began.

"Go on Jessie, get out of here," Cassidy said. "I'm only inviting James, because I trust him not to break anything. A clumsy person like you though? No, I don't think so. Be sure to take your pokemon, too," she said, motioning toward Meowth.

"Hey, I'll have you know I don't belong to anyone!" Meowth said.

James looked at the two apologetically, but he knew that they also knew this was a way for them to see what was going on, and they'd probably understand. Jessie and Meowth walked off, and he was led inside by Cassidy. They climbed some stairs, and then Cassidy motioned over some equipment toward some windows. "Here," she said.

James stared through the window into the large room below. The caged pokemon tried to spread its wings as the scientists and agents swarmed around it. This... was definitely Moltres. Perhaps even the same Moltres he'd seen? He wasn't aware if there were more than one of this legendary pokemon or not. But it wasn't a trick. Now that he thought about it, it had been kind of silly to assume that it was a trick in the first place.

"Kind of impressive, isn't it?" Cassidy said. "Next Butch and I will take a group to go after Zapdos and Articuno. We'll probably acquire those as well. You know, my offer still stands from before. You're welcome to join us anytime you want."

James looked around. Butch apparently hadn't followed them in, they were completely alone in the room. He knew that Butch probably wouldn't agree with that notion. Cassidy's partner really seemed to despise him, in the same fashion that Cassidy and Jessie despised each other. Even if James did want to leave Jessie and Meowth behind, which he didn't, it probably wouldn't be a good combination. "Well... I can't take that offer," he said.

Cassidy was disappointed. But she supposed she really hadn't expected him to accept. "Well, just to let you know it's always on the counter," she said. "What will your team be up to from here, anyway?"

"We're going into the Johto region," James said.

Again Cassidy felt a wave of disappointment, only more intense this time. That would be pretty far from here. Not that she got to see him a lot anyway, but she definitely wouldn't if he were so far away. Cassidy looked from James over to Moltres, then back again. More than success, she wanted love. Not that she could just trade one in for the other, though she would if she could. Success was pretty nice, she may as well appreciate it, even if she couldn't ever be together with James. He seemed to need to take things slow, and they didn't have that kind of time. Oh well. "What will you do there?" Cassidy asked, continuing the conversation.

"Well... That's kind of..." James began.

"Don't worry, I get it. We're kind of rivals, and you don't want to let me in on your plans, huh?" Cassidy said. Or how ridiculous they were thanks to Jessie, she thought to herself.

"Right," James said. Actually, he hadn't wanted to say they really didn't have any concrete plans at all.

"That's alright, I understand," Cassidy said. She put a hand on his shoulder, closing her eyes as she did. "I'm going to miss you, though."

James looked over at Cassidy. She did appear somewhat upset. She rubbed his shoulder, then opened her eyes again, moving herself in front of him. She straightened his collar, then looked into his eyes. "I love you, you know," she said.

James looked away uncomfortably. That 'love' thing again, huh? Was he really missing out on something by ignoring it? Cassidy seemed pretty intense with this declaration, and now had moved her head to his shoulder.

He didn't really mind... This. The physical touch, and possible emotional connection, even if it seemed a little abrupt coming from her. But he wasn't entirely comfortable with everything. Something was nagging at his mind. To other people, a kiss wasn't just a kiss, it was supposed to be a precursor to something else. He'd denied it before, but maybe Cassidy wanted more from him. Maybe that was why she asked him to kiss her that day. And said certain things, like how she 'loved' him. He still didn't really know, but he was curious enough to ask in order to find out.

"Cassidy, can I ask you something?" James said.

"Yes," Cassidy said. "Anything. What is it, James?"

"Um... I think you might be a little offended, though," James said nervously.

"Come on, try me. Go ahead, I promise I won't get mad," Cassidy said.

"Well... Do you want to..." James paused. He wasn't really sure how he could put it politely, but he'd try. "Sleep with me?"

Cassidy moved back a little, smiling at him wryly. "Well, you're being kind of direct, aren't you?" she said.

James was startled. She'd misunderstood, thought he'd be propositioning her instead of just asking for information. "No, wait, that's not right, I was just-"

"It's okay," Cassidy said. "I really don't mind. I guess it must have taken you a lot of courage to ask. Well, don't worry. I'm not offended. My answer to you will always be yes."

James was even more startled as she said that. That answered his question. Cassidy moved closer to him again, kissing him. As she pulled away, James only gaped at her.

He was still so inexperienced, Cassidy realized. But that was fine with her. "Relax a little... It's okay..."

Should he give it a try, James wondered? People always went on about sex, said he didn't want it just because he'd never had any yet. He admitted that he'd been freaked out before because of circumstance, but Cassidy really wasn't like Jessebelle. Maybe he could try it with her.

But no, that wouldn't be right. He couldn't use a girl who thought they shared these strong feelings for an experiment or something. And even though Cassidy wasn't like Jessebelle, he still had pause, he still didn't really _want_ to do anything like that with her. He knew others in his position would be eager, Cassidy herself seemed eager, but he wasn't. He didn't have any desire. It wouldn't be right for him to just go along with it like he did. He should just be upfront with her about it.

"Cassidy, stop," James said, turning his head away from her before she kissed him again. "I didn't mean... To ask you. I'm just not sure about any of this. I don't even think I ever want to have sex with anyone."

He was really nervous, wasn't he, Cassidy thought. Maybe with a complete lack of experience he was anxious about taking this step, maybe others had held with lack of experience against him and given him even more anxiety. But she wouldn't hold that against him. She really didn't care about things like that. She just wanted him.

"Don't worry, James," Cassidy said in an assuring voice. "I guess some things must have happened before to make you feel unsure about your feelings, but I want you to forget about that with me. It's alright. I don't care if you're inexperienced, or whatever else is making you hesitate. You don't have to worry about anything you did before with me, okay? I'm just happy to be with you, no matter what."

"But, you understand that-"

"I understand," Cassidy said. "Just don't worry. I want to be with you... So just relax and enjoy this, okay?"

James tried to do just that as Cassidy kissed him again. She stopped and moved his hands to touch her body, then began kissing him again. James wasn't sure how he should respond, or if he should do anything else that he was touching her. And he jumped in surprise as he heard the door creek open.

They both turned toward the door as a lab assistant walked in, an eyebrow raised. "We have work to do here. You two ought to get a room or something," she said to them.

Cassidy gave a slight smile. It was definitely a good idea. It wasn't comfortable in here, and it really wasn't good to have colleagues walking in on them. "Come on, James, let's go to my room," Cassidy said. He would be able to feel more at ease there.

They opened the door and began to walk toward the building's exit. Butch stood, unnoticed, watching as they did. He'd been behind that lab assistant, ready to walk in and join the conversation before the sight had stopped him, and had him backing off. His original reaction was just an angry sort of jealousy, but now he just felt sad. Seeing Cassidy just before, and now, as she was arm arm with James, she looked so happy.

He'd never seen her that happy before, and they'd spent an awful lot of time together. No, she'd never been that happy. There was no way he could make her happy like that. If she could feel that way with James, good for her. Yeah, good for her, he thought over and over again, thought he felt an unrelenting pain in his chest.

They were about to sleep together, weren't they? Butch realized this as he felt another wave of jealousy. He wondered if James truly appreciated what he had. But if he did or didn't, Butch supposed it didn't matter, because he was giving Cassidy what she hadn't had before, an experience of love. If James were to say he loved her, she'd probably accept it.

That wasn't how it had been for him. He remembered when he'd confessed to her. He'd been apprehensive, definitely nervous about the topic. He'd never been able to say this to anyone before, after all, not even in a platonic context to his own family. But he'd felt strongly enough to continue despite his misgivings, and had said, "I love you," honestly and openly.

And she'd responded with laughter. He'd felt numb as he'd heard that laughter, and then further paralyzed as she glared at him with that piercing gaze she saved for certain situations, when she was ready to put someone in their place. Butch really wasn't that sensitive, but he'd just made himself vulnerable with this admission, and then paid the price of that vulnerability as he saw her reaction. "Butch, let's make something clear," she'd begun. "We make a good team because we respect each other. You get that, right?"

"Yeah," Butch had said.

"Good. Don't think I haven't noticed that you're a man, and you have certain urges when you're around women. And you're starting to get those urges for me, aren't you?" Cassidy had said. Butch didn't even reply. It was true that he was getting those 'urges', but it was different than it had been with other girls before. He really loved her... Didn't he? Maybe it was just lust. "I get that, you know?" Cassidy said. "It makes sense when we're on long missions with just the two of us alone, right? Don't think that women don't have their own urges."

Butch had slowly nodded, though it had still seemed somewhat humiliating to him, having what he thought was his honest love brushed aside like that and redefined in this way.

"But we still need to respect each other. Because some things are more important than that, even if it doesn't seem like it in the heat of the moment. You understand?"

"Yeah," Butch had said, and again nodded.

"I think you do. I know you're kind of honest. You aren't _really_ the type of guy to say he loves a girl forever just to get in bed with her, are you?" Cassidy had said.

"No," Butch had insisted. He really wasn't. "I don't pull shit like that." He'd been with other women, and he'd never even given them even a hint that he had other feelings for them. He'd never led anyone on. He'd never said that he loved any of them. This was different. And Cassidy knew it, right? She knew him well, after all. And maybe now she really...

"I really believe that. You don't seem to be very practiced at the technique, that stupid act there was just a joke, right?" Cassidy said.

Butch had paused only a second before slowly nodding in confirmation.

"Good. I knew you respected me. As long as we have this understanding, I think we can work things out sometimes. Not all the time, because that might interfere with our respectful working relationship. You know what I'm getting at, right?"

Butch had known. And despite the fact that it wasn't exactly what he'd wanted from her, he'd had sex with her anyway. It had been really nice, it was something that he'd enjoyed. But it was also kind of empty. It was his own fault for opening up, really. He should just be thankful that Cassidy was willing to turn her head instead of really ridiculing him. He should be thankful that he'd gotten anything at all from her. He'd really gotten much more than he deserved out of the situation.

He calmed himself now by repeating that affirmation, and trying not think about how if James said he loved her, he'd probably not only be believed, but also get a response of "I love you, too." Unlike him, James seemed the kind of person who was actually capable of love. Yes, he'd gotten more than what he should have, and now Cassidy was getting what she really desired, so he should just turn his head to something that was none of his business. Though he still felt some pain from his jealousy, Butch did just that.

*

As they went inside of Cassidy's private dorm, she locked the door, then led James over the bed. She took off her gloves and boots, then started to help him with his. As she pulled her one-piece uniform over her head, James began to feel exceptionally anxious as he saw her in this state of undress. He knew he should feel some sort of desire here, some sort of excitement or arousal, but... Those feelings just weren't there. He felt nothing other than anxiety over the fact that he felt nothing.

Cassidy was the opposite. She was fairly excited and happy about being in this kind of situation with James. She began to pull at his clothing, to try and help him out of it. "W-Wait," James eventually said. "I'm not really.. I mean, right now, I really don't..."

"It's alright, James. You just need to relax. Don't worry about anything. I'm not judging you."

"Right..." James said. He tried to relax as he undressed, but still couldn't, and felt more awkward as they eventually lay naked next to each other. He looked toward her, then looked away. It seemed strange that he was supposed to get some arousal out of this situation. She must have noticed by now that he wasn't aroused at all yet.

If she did, she didn't seem to mind. Cassidy moved closer to James and began to kiss him. He was able to relax more as she did this, he began to feel somewhat comfortable with the idea of his bare skin touching her's. She began to touch him in ways that weren't necessarily sexual and he felt his anxiety die down a little as she did that for a while. "Do you feel better now, James?" she eventually asked.

"Yeah," James said. Even though it still seemed over-rated to him, just being here like this with her wasn't really bad at all, he thought. But then she touched him in a way that certainly was sexual, and he gasped, then shouted in surprise.

Cassidy looked at him with a smile as she touched him. "Does it feel good?" she asked.

"Yes," James said. This really wasn't the kind of 'good' feeling that he'd seek out. But it wasn't a painful sensation or anything. He supposed he was answering honestly, even though he didn't feel the way an average guy who wanted to do something like this would feel when answering this question. He just let her do what she wanted, but in his mind he felt awkward about it all and just kept wondering when this part would be over. Maybe when his body started reacting the way it was supposed to.

It eventually did. James noticed that Cassidy herself seemed to be getting pretty excited right about then, breathing faster and pressing herself even closer to him. She was now on top of him, and touched his face as she looked him in the eyes, appearing pleased.

"Cassidy..." James said. He was definitely feeling unsure about this, but he had been from the start. It was a very bad idea, for several reasons. He wasn't sure how he should articulate that though. "Cassidy, I... I..."

Cassidy just smiled at him. "Don't worry, James. I won't keep you waiting like this." She kissed him after she spoke. "I love you," she said.

James didn't say anything. He felt embarrassed, and thought about maybe rejecting her at this point, stopping things. But there was really no reason he should, was there? This was an enjoyable act. It was what everyone else desired, so he should just stop acting 'damaged' and relax and enjoy it already. He should feel lucky to have someone who 'loved' him.

So again, he just let Cassidy act on her own desires. Cassidy seemed to like this, but James felt fairly uncomfortable, and again just wondered when it would be over. He gasped as he felt a particularly strong sensation. "Cassidy..." he said. Shouldn't she get off of him now?

She eventually did, then smirked at him. "Done already?" she said.

"Uh... Yeah," James said.

"That's okay. I'm really happy to have been with you like this, James. It was your first time, huh?"

"Yes, it was," James said. He hadn't really enjoyed it, and didn't really have any desire for there to even be a second time. That probably wasn't the normal reaction, was it? He certainly wouldn't say anything like that to her about it.

"I'm happy you trusted me enough for that... You were really nervous, huh?"

"I guess... It was that obvious?" James said.

"No worries. I'm still happy. I love you, James."

James lay there as Cassidy embraced him again. As he thought back on what they'd done, he started to realize just how undignified it was. Repulsive, even. No, he didn't want to do it again. She didn't repulse him, but the act itself had. Laying here with her now was alright, but thinking about sex with her had him feeling nauseated.

But he didn't want to just tell her that. If she was happy, then fine, at least one of them had enjoyed it. Telling her how he really felt would ruin things for her as well. James was leaving to Johto, so she wouldn't even be able to proposition him again anytime soon, anyway.

"Oh, James!" Mondo yelled as he saw James walking across the base.

"Hm?" James turned around, seeing Mondo running over to him with his ditto in hand.

"There you are! Jessie and the great Meowth were looking all over for you. I was too, to help them! You were gone a long time!" Mondo said.

"Right," James said, hoping Mondo wouldn't press for details.

"Well, I found you now! And guess what! When I looked for you in the lab, they let me see Moltres, and bring Ditto out! That's pretty cool, isn't it?"

"Yeah. What happened?" James asked.

"Well..." Mondo paused. "Ditto was afraid of Moltres, and went to hide in the corner! Ha! Poor Ditto. I guess love between them probably won't work out after all, then."

"Yes, it sounds like it wouldn't," James said.

"Ditto," Ditto said gloomily.

"Don't worry, Ditto! You'll certainly find love one day!" Mondo said. "There, now return to your pokeball."

"Mondo," James began hesitantly.

"Yes?"

"How do you know Ditto wants to?"

"Wants to what?" Mondo asked, honestly confused.

"Well... It's probably true that your Ditto can become a mate for any pokemon... Physically, since it can transform into any pokemon. But that's just a function that all Ditto are born with. How do you know your Ditto really wants to be a mate for another pokemon?" James asked.

"Oh, that's easy! It's simple to know that Ditto wants to find love!" Mondo said.

"Really?" James said. "How do you know? What makes it so simple to tell how your pokemon feels?" he asked. He really wanted to know.

"Yeah, it's pretty simple to know. Because everyone wants to find love! Even for pokemon it's the same! It's one of life's consistent goals!" Mondo declared.

"Oh..." James said. "Do you really think that?"

"Of course! Ditto wants love the same as it wants to eat and breathe. It's a requirement," Mondo said, nodding at his own words. He looked over at James, who frowned morosely, seeming like he was struggling with something. "James, are you okay?" Mondo asked.

"I'm fine, Mondo. Where are Jessie and Meowth, anyway?"


End file.
